Harvick's Busch win irks Biffle

Kevin Harvick rolled to an easy victory Saturday in the USG Durock 300 at the Chicagoland Speedway. Greg Biffle finished second and Ryan Newman finished third--and then the action started.

"I think Kevin Harvick's a chicken. I think he's a punk," Biffle said. "And I wish he was sitting right here beside me."

How do you really feel, someone shouted.

"If you want to know how I really feel, I get points taken away," Biffle replied.

The incident that riled him occurred two-thirds of the way through the Busch Series race when, Biffle believes, Harvick intentionally slowed in an attempt to keep Biffle a lap down. It was both a legal and strategic move, but Biffle thinks it lacked in sportsmanship.

"You have to be that desperate to win a race, he must not have won in a long time," Biffle said. "That's going to pretty extreme measures. . . . I think you ask 43 drivers in the garage over there if they'd race like that or think like that, I don't think there is [anyone]. That's why I thought it was chicken."

Harvick, who was at his victory ceremony as Biffle fumed, appeared several minutes later, after his critic had left.

"The biggest thing that he needs to do is remember that we're out here racing," Harvick said when asked about Biffle's remarks.

"My car was loose at the time. He can say what he wants, but . . . it sounds to me like he's showing a lot of prima-donna attitude when he needs to go sit in his motor home with his girlfriend. If he wants to step outside and take care of it, we can. But I didn't know it was an issue, as far as I'm concerned, so he can sit out there and whine all he wants."

Looking for Mr. Mo

Harvick won the inaugural Nextel Cup race at Chicagoland Speedway in 2001 and a year later won the race again. But he arrived for Sunday's USG Sheetrock 400 after a 24th at Daytona, a 37th at Sonoma and a 25th at Michigan, results which dropped him to 14th in the championship points race.

"I have a lot of confidence, the team has a lot of confidence," he said. "But we had a bad June. We need a good solid day (Sunday), then we'll be in good shape heading into the rest of the summer."

Promises

Sunday's Sheetrock will be the fifth Cup race at Chicagoland, which has matured from a single-groove track to one with side-by-side racing.

"We went into Turn 3 once [Saturday] with Harvick leading, Greg second, me third. . . . We went in there spread out like a fan trying to get an advantage on each other," Newman said. "I love coming to race tracks like this where you can do that."

Will we see that Sunday?

"You might," he said. "Maybe not. It all depends."

Quickly noted

If auto racing was handicapped like horse racing, the past performance chart would say to bet Tony Stewart to win on Sunday. He triumphed here last year after finishing second in 2003 and third in 2002. Next best bet? Points leader and pole-sitter Jimmie Johnson, who improved from fourth in 2002 to third in 2003 to second last year.